I have always been an avid reader and chose to study graphic design with the dream of one day working for a publishing house or a magazine designing covers and layouts. I remember noticing the designs of the books I read when I was just a little kid, being interested in the way the words in my dinosaur book wrapped around the pictures of the animals and made my eyes dance around the page. As I got older, I became obsessed with magazines like Nylon and Teen Vogue. When I flipped through the pages, I dreamt of one day being in charge of putting together editorial spreads featuring my favorite celebrities and style icons. In college, I discovered publications like Apartamento Magazine, The Paris Review, and Kennedy Magazine. The unique style of publications like these intrigued me, with their pages often breaking the rules of type and layout that I had learned in the design classes I was taking. Sometimes margins were ignored, type was stretched, orphans, widows, and runts were present throughout- all design no-no’s that I was taught were a sign of “bad design” and yet looked cool as hell. The fact that magazines I loved so much (and were very successful) rebelled against the traditional rules of layout got me even more excited about editorial design. There was an art to putting together a page that was both informative and looked good, and I wanted to learn how to do it.
The earliest memory I have of my interest in editorial design was when I wrote and illustrated a Rugrats story. I must have been about six or seven years old at the time, and I remember writing out a whole story about Chuckie, the underdog of the Rugrats crew, on several sheets of wide ruled paper I found lying around the house. I designed the cover to my new story and drew illustrations throughout. When I was finished, I stapled all the pages together and had my first passion project, a book that I wrote and designed all by myself. Unfortunately, my parents weren’t great at keeping things from mine and my siblings’ childhood, so the book is only a memory now. I know that my memory is definitely deceiving me, but when I think back to the drawings of all the Rugrats I drew in the book, I remember them being extremely accurate to what they looked like on TV (and I refuse to think otherwise- it makes total sense that six year old me could be as talented as a professional cartoonist). I’m bummed that I don’t have the physical copy anymore, but I’ll always have the memory of the project that I think might have been the thing that ignited my love for editorial design.
I don’t have the original copy of my Rugrats book but I think it definitely looked exactly like this real one.
An instance that really solidified my love for editorial design was when I read House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. If you’ve read (or even flipped through) this book, you probably noticed that it’s different than most other novels. The contents of the book are a lot to absorb (totally not embarrassed to admit that it took me a couple years of reading it off and on to finish it), but I think the most striking part of it is how the book is designed. It’s unlike any book I’ve ever read- the way the words are placed on the page is a tool to emphasize and move the plot along. There were pages that only had a few words on it, some words were written backwards or upside down, and some even had words printed on top of each other to give the feeling of chaos and confusion.
Finding this book changed my perspective of how design can manipulate how we read things. I’m sure it still would’ve been an exciting book to read if the design of House of Leaves was like any other novel, but its unique typography really emphasized just how scary and disorienting the plot was at times. Danielewski designed his novel in a way that forces the reader to engage with the text. At times, his design choices made it more difficult to follow the plot (at least for me). Throughout the book, there are two or more narratives occurring at once- always at least one in the main text and one in the footnotes. You can imagine how difficult it might be to follow all the narratives at once, but I think that’s the whole point of the book. I think the author made the layout of his book confusing and sometimes hard to read on purpose. The general mood of the book is chaotic, and so it makes sense that the design of the text would be, too.
I’ve had a lot of fantasies about what my life could look like, lots of indecisiveness when it comes to career goals (something for another blog post). When I was in college, I was told that print was a dying industry. I remember telling some of my professors that I wanted to go into editorial design, only to get discouraging looks and suggestions for a more “realistic” career path. Apparently audiobooks and online publications were the way of the future and that meant print was OUT. That was obviously crushing to hear as someone who literally chose to pursue graphic design to ultimately end up working in print. I believed them at the time, as I tend to do too easily (something for another blog post), but I’ve since realized that they were totally wrong. Like vinyl records and cassette tapes, books are back, baby! They technically never left, but they’re arguably more popular than ever (just look up “BookTok'“ and you’ll see how trendy reading has become). It doesn’t stop with books, either- zines have become more popular than ever as well. Independent creatives have turned to the art of zine publishing to get their work out. There are zine fairs where fans can buy artists’ work to add to their zine collection. Online articles may be more convenient to access, but printed magazines and newspapers will always be the superior way. There’s something special about turning a page (and not killing your eyes with the harsh blue light of computer and phone screens). One of my favorite things to do when I visit New York is visiting the magazine stores around the city. These shops are usually filled floor to ceiling with magazines and newspapers from around the world, including both independent and big name publications. Take one step into one of these shops and you’ll realize that print is far from dead. It made sense for my professors to think that technology might replace print in the future, but I don’t think print will ever go away. Having something tangible to flip through and read is too special to get rid of, regardless of the convenience of digital. Print never died and I was silly to have put my editorial dreams aside so easily!
I’m so excited for my future career in editorial design. I’ve done the post-grad wandering for long enough and I’m ready to start actually pursuing my dreams now. The job search has been daunting and sometimes it feels impossible to get potential employers to notice me but I’m not going to let myself give up anymore when things are challenging. I talk a lot about how much I love and want to do certain things and I tend to forget that I’m fully capable of actually doing the things that I’ve always wanted to do instead of just talking about them (does that make sense?).
I’m starting this blog mostly to just get thoughts out of my head and organized in one place but also to confront my fear of being perceived (something for another blog post). I’m happy to write into the void but I also really do appreciate anyone who decides to read this and I’m open to hearing all the thoughts you have about any of the subjects I write about! Have you noticed any really good or really bad editorial design lately?
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